Community Cancer T-shirt design to be released May 8

The Sturgeon Bay Fire Department is set to release 2015 Community Cancer T-shirt design during the Door CANcer’s benefit May 8.

This year Door County high school seniors were given the opportunity to design the back of the shirt. The front will feature the phrase “No one fights alone 2015” in the shape of a cancer ribbon. The prize for the winning design is a $500 scholarship. The Fire Department, which operates under the non-profit name Pioneer Fire Co. for its charity work, has been selling shirts to raise money for local cancer groups for five years. This is the second year of selling a Community Cancer T-shirt.

CDE Signs & Shirts owner Paula Reichel will be printing the shirts.

For the Fire Department and Reichel, the fight against cancer is personal.

The department lost firefighter John Soukup in 2013 to cancer, and Pam Jorns, who is Reichel’s sister and part-time firefighter and Pioneer Fire Co. president Ethan Jorns’ wife, will celebrate two years of being cancer-free on Tuesday.

Jorns said Door CANcer helped his family navigate insurance and treatments during his wife’s illness. The group even offered to make a mortgage payment for them.

“So we had to step up our game,” Reichel said.

Door CANcer is one of three organizations the Sturgeon Bay Fire Department plans to split the proceeds with. The other organizations are the GO BO Foundation and the Cancer Center of Door County.

Shirts can be ordered at three Sturgeon Bay locations starting April 25: in the lobby of City Hall, 421 Michigan St., JR Vacation Rentals 53 W. Spruce St. in Sturgeon Bay, or Bay Hometown Pharmacy, 231 N. Seventh Ave. in Sturgeon Bay. Shirts can be ordered through July 24. Cost varies depending on shirt style and size.

The group is being tight-lipped about what the back of the T-shirt will look like and who created the winning design.